National movement holds second conference to promote Black, Asian and minority ethnic leadership

In the wake of the Black Lives Matter protests, grassroots movement Break the Cycle, which promotes Black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) leadership across education and youth work in the UK, is holding its second national conference, sponsored by the Times Educational Supplement.

Break the Cycle is a national grassroots movement, hosted by the Oasis UK charity, aimed at tackling the current massive under-representation of BAME leaders in education by promoting African, Caribbean and Asian leadership across education and youth work in the UK.

Entitled ‘Time for Change: How a Racist Education produces a Racist Culture’, conference speakers include Lord Michael Hastings (Chancellor of Regent's University London), Tessy Ojo (CEO of The Diana Award) and Professor Robert Beckford (a BAFTA award winning documentary film maker, scholar at Canterbury Christ Church University and activist researching racial justice).

Keynote presentations will cover ‘Black Lives Matter: Implications for Education, Teacher Training and Recruitment’ and ‘Black Leadership – Lessons from the Frontline’, while Lord Michael Hastings will conclude with an inspirational account of his own experiences as a Black business leader and public figure, entitled ‘I Can’t Breathe’.

Professor Robert Beckford, says; ”We want all those who care about racial equity to understand the key role that education plays and to commit to being part of the national ‘Break the Cycle Movement’. We want to get the job done!”

Change Already Underway

The Break the Cycle Manifesto produced by the 2019 conference is an action plan for all schools – primary and secondary – committed to challenging and changing the cultures and systems that hold back the next generation of BAME leadership.

Since the first Break the Cycle conference, local groups have been meeting in schools tackling conscious and unconscious race inequality in school infrastructures and practices - from recruitment to leadership training.

Steve Chalke MBE, Founder of Oasis Community Learning, and one of the backers of Break the Cycle said; “We can only overcome the cultures that hold back African, Caribbean and Asian school leaders, by working together and that is the simple thinking behind Break the Cycle. For far too long, we have failed to challenge the under-representation of BAME leaders in education or recognise its negative impact on young people who don’t get to experience leadership role modelled by someone with the same colour skin as theirs.”

“We all have to work for this – black, brown and white – if we’re going to get it done. So everyone is welcome. By bringing together activists, experts, and members of the education community who care about righting this wrong, we will share experience and best practice and contribute to making a lasting change.”

Within Oasis, progress is being made thanks in part to the impact of Break the Cycle. In the last twelve months, five African, Caribbean and Asian leaders have been appointed to principal, associate principal, and deputy principal positions. The proportion of BAME participants on Oasis’s annual National Professional Qualification for Headteachers course has increased by thirty-six percentage points.

“We’re not claiming that Oasis has found the answer or solved the issue,” explains Steve Chalke, “but we’re hosting Break the Cycle because we want to play our part in the change we long to see.”

You can get tickets for Break The Cycle 2020 HERE.